SNOWY OWL. 189 



Scotland it has been obtained once or oftener in most of 

 the Highland counties and those bordering the Firth of 

 Clyde. The same is the case in the islands of Mull, lona 

 and Sk^'e ; while in the Outer Hebrides it may be regarded, 

 says Mr. Eobert Gray, as an almost regular spring visitant. 

 In England it has occurred at least thrice in Northumber- 

 land, once in Yorkshire, seven or eight times in Norfolk, 

 once in Suflblk and once in Devonshire. In Ireland the 

 recorded occurrences are not much less numerous, and 

 beside the example before mentioned, which seems to have 

 been noticed in the county Wexford in 1812, others have 

 been observed in Cork, Tipperary, Longford, Mayo — where 

 several specimens have been obtained, Donegal, Tyrone, 

 Antrim, Armagh and Down. 



The Snowy Owl is a truly Arctic bird, inhabiting the more 

 northern parts of both hemispheres, not usually haunting the 

 woodlands, as does the last species ; but frequenting the open 

 and mountainous districts. It has several times occurred 

 in the Fteroes ; but visits Iceland and Spitsbergen only as a 

 straggler, though observed by Mr. Gillett to be very common 

 along the coast of Nova Zembla. It is a bird very well 

 known to the Laplanders, and, regulating its movements by 

 those of the lemmings, occasionally follows those destructive 

 little rodents along the mountain ranges to lower latitudes, 

 generally keeping, however, above the limit at which trees 

 gi'ow on the fells. It is thus often found to breed abun- 

 dantly in a district wherein for many years before it had 

 only been known as a straggler. The nest consists of a 

 little moss or lichen and a few feathers, generally placed on 

 a ledge of rock, where there is a slight hollow ; but at times 

 the eggs lie on the bare ground. They are from six to 

 eight or even more in number, white, and measure from 

 2-44 to 2-1 in. by from 1-84 to 1*68 in. According to 

 information supplied by a correspondent in Labrador to Mr. 

 Hubert Hawkins (Ibis, 1870, p. 298) they "are not all 

 laid and brooded at one time, but the first two are often 

 hatched by the time the last is laid, so that you may find 

 in one nest young birds and fresh eggs, and others more or 



